In loving memory of Patricia Hodgson who sadly passed away on 3rd December 2023.
Pat was born in Ealing, London in 1939. She spent the wartime years with her mother, Phyll, at the home of her Nannie in Putney, where the house was damaged by nearby bombing. Pat’s father Fred served in the War and was killed when Pat was four years old. Her mother later remarried, and Pat grew up with her stepfather, stepsister and stepbrothers in Ealing.
Pat studied Geography at Hull University and became a popular and respected teacher at Gillingham School in Dorset, and then Deputy Head of a school in Workington in Cumbria. In 1983 Pat married Frank Hodgson. She has been a dear friend and stepmother to John, David, Mike, and Harry and loved them and their families.
Pat and Frank had a wonderful retirement together, travelling, and sharing a love of walking in the Lake District from their home in Ennerdale Bridge. Then moved to Silsden after falling in love with canal boating. Every summer was spent exploring the canal network, down to the Thames.
Always adventurous, after Frank’s death in 2002, Pat continued to spend summers on the boat. She took the helm; family and friends helped out by manning locks and bridges. She played golf, and was Ladies Captain at Silsden Golf Club. She also enjoyed holidays in New Zealand and Canada with her cousin Lesley, and often spent Christmas in Sweden with Swedish friends she met as part of a teacher exchange.
Pat always had a dog, the last being her much-loved Springer spaniel, Jane. In recent years, her home in Silsden, with its view across the Leeds Liverpool Canal and the Aire Valley, has meant so much to her, and she loved watching the ducks and swans with their ducklings and cygnets on the canal.
Dear Pat
So very many good times together - teaching,geography field trips, orienteering , golf, canal boating. I am so sorry that I was far away and so was not able to be present at your funeral but I shall ner forget our friendship. Love Sue
Thinking of you all John, Mike and Harry and of you Pip for all the care and love you gave to Pat. So sorry for your loss. Jude, Pete and Tim x
Mats and I are very sorry that we cannot come to the funeral. We would have loved to take a proper farewell of Pat as well as an era of our lives.
After we had swapped houses in 1986, Pat and Frank became our dear friends and we saw each other at least once a year. It became a tradition for them to spend Christmas with us and Pat held on to this tradition as long as she could.
She was like a member of our family, and over the years met most of our friends and relatives around Sweden and on our island.
We also visited both Ennerdale and Silsden and spent many joyful holidays going up and down the canals in England and Wales and also several times on the Thames.
We were introduced to Pat's family and friends which has been very rewarding for us.
Pat leaves a big gap in our lives and will be sadly missed by Mats and I, by our children Richard and Cecilia and by our grandchildren.
Given the opportunity I think this is what Pat might have said
"If I should go before the rest of you
Break not a flower
nor inscribe a stone
Nor when I'm gone speak in a Sunday voice
But be the usual selves that I have known
Weep if you must,
Parting is hell
But life goes on,
So sing as well."
I am very sorry not to be able to come to Pat's funeral. I have such very fond memories of Pat, from the many Easter holidays we spent with Pat and Frank at Ennerdale Bridge. I remember Pat as a one-of-a-kind person, always herself: warm and full of humour in the face of three young children, and later three teenagers, invading their lovely house and garden. Very happy times for us. Pat never talked down to us or tried to “teach” us just because we were children; instead she was inspiring just by being cheerfully herself, being straightforward and sincere. She loved the natural world, and a cold lager at the end of the day. She will be missed.
Pat in Madeira 2019
A wonderful life well lived, obviously a very much loved person.
Pat in Madeira 2019
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